The Running Expert

[For middle-aged people, the breaking point often begins with a medical checkup.]

At 42, Lin Yongnian is the founder of Yongnian Technology.

After building a small workshop into a well-known company over twenty years, he has turned himself into a machine on the verge of breaking down.

High blood pressure, fatty liver, an irregular heartbeat, and chronic insomnia.

Clients are at the drinking table, deals are made over social engagements, and competitors are lurking behind him.

The company cannot stop, and he dares not stop either.

Until one night, after a celebration banquet, he is rushed to the emergency room.

The doctor’s words hit him like a blow:

“You’re not a successful businessman right now. You’re a high-risk patient.”

To stay alive, he starts running.

But Lin Yongnian soon discovers that running is just as competitive as business.

People compete over pace, distance, gear, and race times;

his social media feed is full of tales of “self-discipline,” while the track is full of “midlife anxiety.”

He trains obsessively and becomes fixated on the numbers,

but injures his knee before his first half-marathon.

His business is hit by a vicious price war,

his health is on the brink of collapse,

and his family relationships grow increasingly strained.

At his lowest point,

he meets a man in the park who runs “so slowly, it’s like he’s taking a stroll.”

“A true master isn’t the person who runs the fastest.”

“It’s the person who can keep running in good health.”

From that day on,

Lin Yongnian learns, for the first time,

to slow down.

To run slowly, think slowly, make decisions slowly, and live slowly.

And he gradually discovers that what truly determines how far a company can go

isn’t explosive growth,

but its vitality.